Muskoka Mad Tom IPA | Muskoka Brewery

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Notes / Commercial Description:
Inspired by late night stories around the fire, Muskoka Mad Tom will instantly grab your attention. Dry-hopped with Chinook and Centennial hops, this IPA has a vibrant aroma, depth of flavour, and crisp citrusy undertow like no other. So brace yourself, and crack one open for old Mad Tom. This is an awakening in craft beer that gets more enticing with every sip.

SMell is slightly subtle for an American IPA. Oddly, i just percieve the slightest amount of early hops. I am assuming they went more towards the bittering hop than the aroma/dry hop... but hard to tell.

Taste is wonderful, as an American IPA Should. Rich and bitter. Perhaps a bit less sweet than most AIPA's but still, a backbone of malt with a strong building hoppiness. Citrus and earth...A bit strong on the "bitterness" with perhaps slightly less flavor of the hop. Nevertheless, nice and enjoyable for the style.

Overall a really nice A-IPA, not my #1, but up for an Ontario Brew, very good indeed.

UPDATE: Had on tape, actually much better with way more hop flavor and aroma.

Splendid IPA. The balance of Chinook and Centennial hops lusciously licks my palate with each swallow. The citrus undertones illuminate the heavy hops with a incandescent glow. A staple of the Ontario IPA scene, Mad Tom will not fail to warm your loins!

I'm drinking this from a can that hasn't been chilled yet so it's affecting the feel and flavour. But, even at room temperature, this is a pretty good beer. It's bitter but not over powering so it could be a sessionable ale if it wasn't for the the 6.4% ABV. I'd love to taste this on draught because I sense it will be way better. One day......

Picked up a sixer of this for the long weekend. Not sure how this one slipped under my radar - I've been eagerly awaiting the first real six pack of IPA in the LCBO for a long time.

Poured into a nonic. On the paler end of the India Pale Ale spectrum, a nice amber-golden with a decent fluffy head and some lacing patches.

Nose is a friendly citrus and earthy hop blast with a bit of orange peel, grapefruit, pine and caramel.

Powered my way through this six pack with great pleasure - this is one fine IPA. A bit more English than I'd expected, but still a damned tasty brew. Good lingering earthy bitterness, with the citrus and caramel at the forefront.

Slightly creamy, a bit of oil, nice zippy carbonation.

Muskoka has really done itself proud recently with its Summer Weiss and Chocolate Stout, and this brew is another fine addition to the family. Hopefully Mad Tom will keep lurking on the LCBO's shelves, because this could well become my default sixer. While not as juicy and potent as some of the big American brews, this is certainly on par with many an American IPA offering south of the border. Great stuff.

Appearance - pours a gorgeous almost clear ale colour, very nice carbonation right up the middle of the beer, nice white head about 2 fingers and quickly drops to one, some minor lacing.

Smell - Hops, pine, some citrus and then the faint hint of sweetness from caramel. this is exactly what i would expect from an IPA, just not truly found in Canada.

Taste - very mild tasting at the start, but as the glass progressed there was more flavours to enjoy. i tasted the pine and hops along with a little sweetness. the bitterness came through in the end with the citrus aspect.

Mouthfeel - some decent volume added, brought the pine and hops fwd. also found a little malt in the mouthfeel, very nice.

Overall - finally, an Ontario IPA that has gotten it right. I sure hope this is a sign of the times and Ontario/Canada starts to produce some of these fine IPA's . Thanks to spinrsx for the trade, now off to enjoy the 6 pack!

Appearance: clear; deep gold turning to amber; good head that lasts several minutes

Aroma: sweet citrus - orange, tangerine; hint of spice

Taste & Mouthfeel: clean, crisp, with a pleasing hop bitterness - less like the citrus aroma, but again there is some tangerine flavour; herbal spices, like coriander, maybe some pepper; caramel malts make an appearance too

Overall: easy-drinking with an above average variety of flavour for an IPA; a refreshing beer to enjoy on the cottage deck

Been drinking this for years. Very consistent batches, also tastes well either bottle or can. Balanced IPA that has the bitterness and fruit. Hops are Centennial and Chinook, as per label. I don't get huge pine or dank from it like some west coast styles, or the kinds of esters from some English style IPA. Mad Tom is its own thing (there is also a double Mad Tom), very delicious and in my opinion one of the very finest out of Ontario, or Canada for that matter.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium copper amber colour, with two fingers of densely foamy, and somewhat bubbly dirty white head, which settles on a firm, agreeable schedule, leaving some front-row splash-victim lace around the glass.

It smells of semi-sweet caramel malt, hard toffee, equally sugary orange cream, obligatorily bitter grapefruit/pine hops, further muddled tropical fruit notes, a touch of aerosol pepper spice, and subtle hints of the underlying booze. Wow - is this really made in Ontario? The taste is strong grapefruit rind and bitter pine resin right up front, followed by a tamer bready malt, more biscuit than caramel, a dry tropical fruitiness (think pineapple cores), and a slightly differentiated lemon citrus zing, one rolled into a Limoncella-esque essence through forced association with the circling alcohol measure.

The carbonation is moderate, showing some palate-zinging frothiness here and there, the body a stolid medium weight, and as smooth as allowable under the hop alert circumstances. It finishes still pretty damned hoppy and bitter - I know there's some under-appreciated, rounded malt sweetness in there, waiting for word from the outside world, but at this point, I just don't notice (or really care, frankly).

4 years of work trips to T-dot, and I never encountered anything really quite resembling a west coast IPA, at least not from the craft brewers of Ontario (Beer Bistro or Volo's stellar imports notwithstanding). My hotel bar, on one occasion, had all the Muskoka offerings at the time on tap, and I tried them all, once. If they had offered this, then, they would have had to call the porter to drag my over-imbibed ass up to my room, every night I was a guest there. Anyways, a very good, big-boy IPA, I'm so finally glad to say.